


Inevitable

by bitsori



Category: fromis_9 (Band)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Childhood Friends, Confessions, F/F, Female Friendship, Pre-Femslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:33:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24506230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bitsori/pseuds/bitsori
Summary: “Seoyeon-ah! Is that you?”“Romsae!” She screeches enthusiastically, her feet automatically picking up their pace as she rushes towards the older woman. Seoyeon throws herself at her old friend, arms wrapping around Saerom’s slim body frame and squeezing her tightly. The gesture exudes the kind of familiarity one wouldn’t expect from a pair of friends who hasn’t seen each other in ten years, but it also expresses the kind of affection that comes from missing someone after not talking to them for just as long.--or: Seoyeon runs into Saerom at their old hometown, ten years after they lost touch ( AU )
Relationships: Lee Saerom/Lee Seoyeon
Comments: 8
Kudos: 30
Collections: Girl Group Jukebox (Round 2)





	Inevitable

**Author's Note:**

> Written for **[Girl Group Jukebox ROUND 2](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/ggjukebox2)**  
>  Inspired by **Taylor Swift's[I'm Only Me When I'm With You](https://open.spotify.com/track/7CzxXgQXurKZCyHz9ufbo1?si=UnGz1sKbSCeXATcqdZeg6g)**

~

_Trying to figure out what is and isn't true_ _  
_ _And I don't try to hide my tears_ _  
_ _My secrets or my deepest fears_ _  
_ _Through it all nobody gets me like you do_

  
  
  


Seoyeon finds it strange to be back in her hometown after—she’s lost count how many years, actually. It’s definitely been a decade, give or take; she can’t be sure, Math has never really been her strong suit.

She never really had reason to come back. After high school, she had moved to Seoul for university, and after a year there, she had left the country altogether to study in the US after she’d managed to get into art school there.

During the time since, her parents had moved to Seoul so they could be near her oldest brother after he got married and started his own family. And so, even after she graduated from art school, the few times she’d fly back home to Korea, she never really had any reason to go and visit her hometown.

At least until now. 

Her second brother had married his high school sweetheart, and for reasons that are lost on Seoyeon, even though they had spent the last six years building a life together in Seoul, now that they’re starting a family of more than two, they have decided to settle in the town where they grew up in, and first met. (Put like that, maybe Seoyeon does kind of see the reasoning and the appeal.)

Seoyeon is staying at their guest bedroom for the next five days; she hadn’t been able to take a break from work when her sister-in-law had given birth almost two months ago, but she’d flown back home the first chance she got and she doesn’t regret it because, quite frankly, her niece is an adorable angel.

“Are you sure you don’t need any more of my help?” She’d asked after dinner, after she’d finished cleaning up and washing the dishes.

“Oh, I’m sure I’ll be needing your help a lot,” her sister-in-law told her with a good-natured laugh. “But you just got here today, and it’s better to rest so you can be energized tomorrow—and the rest of the week, so I wouldn’t feel guilty about turning you into a glorified baby-sitter.”

Seoyeon laughed along and allowed her brother to shoo her away to her bedroom. They were probably right—she should get rest, but it was barely eight in the evening and her jetlagged body was operating in a timezone where the day was only just beginning.

So she grabs a light sweater, puts her shoes back on, and heads out into the night; back when she was in high school, she would take lengthy evening walks by herself—mostly to get home from cram school, but it was always nice because their little country village is always especially peaceful after 7 at night, and quiet solitude always allowed Seoyeon to sort out the jumbled mess that is her thoughts.

The nearest convenience store is around two and a half long blocks away from where her brother lives, and she figures she’d head there first. There’s a Korean minimart close to her apartment in San Francisco, but apart from inflated prices, there are a few snacks that she misses which they don’t really import.

She’s several meters away from the store, when someone steps out of the exit. It’s someone who looks familiar, and Seoyeon’s eyes grow wide with excitement when she realises who it is. She’s about to call out to the person, when they turn towards her and beats her to a greeting.

“Seoyeon-ah! Is that you?”

“Romsae!” She screeches enthusiastically, her feet automatically picking up their pace as she rushes towards the older woman. Seoyeon throws herself at her old friend, arms wrapping around Saerom’s slim body frame and squeezing her tightly. The gesture exudes the kind of familiarity one wouldn’t expect from a pair of friends who hasn’t seen each other in almost ten years, but it also expresses the kind of affection that comes from missing someone after not talking to them for just as long.

“Ah!” Saerom squeaks, unable to do anything but pat the back of Seoyeon’s head before she attempts to wiggle free from the latter’s hold. “You haven't changed a bit!”

Seoyeon laughs and finally steps away; Saerom was undoubtedly referring to her clinginess with her statement, but Seoyeon doesn't mind, mostly because she can’t deny the truth in them.

After Seoyeon quickly buys herself bottled shikhye and wasabi almonds, she invites Saerom to go with her on her walk. She usually likes taking them alone, but Saerom is different if only because before Seoyeon had needed to turn to silence in order to organize her thoughts, Saerom had been the one person she could talk to and everything would immediately seem clearer.

Being three years apart, Seoyeon can't exactly say that they grew up together. They met as children, only because Saerom was in the same class as her oldest brother, but they didn’t really become _friends_ until Seoyeon was in her second year of middle school and a teenaged Saerom was asked by her parents to help tutor her in Math.

Saerom was kind and patient, but she was also funny, and she always laughed at Seoyeon’s silly jokes and comments. She had a wider view of the world compared to Seoyeon, which made sense considering three years accounts for a whole lot of difference in experience when you’re young—she fascinated Seoyeon, and whenever she had something troubling her thoughts, Saerom always seemed to have the answer she was looking for.

She graduated high school right as Seoyeon entered it, and initially that had seemed to be that for their friendship, especially since Saerom had gone to university somewhere in Busan.

But then one Friday night, after cram school, they’d ran across each other.

“I’m visiting for the weekend,” she had explained—it wasn't that hard for Saerom to visit, with her university just being two hours away, and with her being a very filial daughter, going home for weekends was simply the norm for her. And so from then on, somehow, Fridays became theirs.

“So, do you still live in the US?” Saerom asks as they now walk together aimlessly, down the sidewalks of their old hometown; Seoyeon is surprised at how familiar all the streets still are despite the years that have passed.

“Oh, yeah, I'm in the country for roughly three weeks, but next Sunday I'm going back to Seoul,” She explains, her tone carrying more than it's usual girlish charm; she notices it, and tries to pull it back but it's a natural effect of being around Saerom, apparently. “How about you, unnie?”

It's tragic, really, how horribly out of touch they are. Seoyeon knows it's partly her fault for not really having any presence on social media, especially since she's the one who chose to move and settle out of the country, but there's something about social media interaction that she finds so impersonal that it's unsettling to her. She regularly emails her brothers, and calls her parents, at least, but a lot of her old friendships have simply faded away thanks to distance.

“Oh, I moved back here around two—almost three years ago,” Saerom explains. “And now I teach math to fourth graders.”

Seoyeon finds herself immediately smiling, because the image of Saerom surrounded by children is incredibly adorable.

Saerom regales her with a few anecdotes about the children she teaches, a few of them funny and some of them heartwarming. In turn, Seoyeon shares mostly frustrating stories about the clients she has to deal with as a Junior creatives executive in the advertising agency she works at.

They might have gone years without talking, but Saerom makes Seoyeon realise that such circumstances don't really matter, because with friends who really know you, it's always comfortable no matter what. Saerom, just as she was ten years ago when Seoyeon was only 17, is the same to her even now that she's 27—a person she could talk to about anything and everything.

  
  
  


“Do you remember that dream you had once—”

Seoyeon doesn't even let Saerom finish asking her question before she bursts into laughter. “Unnie!” she snorts. “I had a lot of dreams!”

Saerom hums, only to join in Seoyeon's laughter soon enough. “That's true—I felt like your personal dream journal at one point! Do you still dream a lot in your sleep?”

Seoyeon shrugs. “Sometimes—not as much as before because I'm usually so tired from work, so once my head hits the pillow I end up sleeping all through the night. But when I have them, they're as weird as ever.”

“Ah, are you not getting enough sleep, Syeonnie?” Saerom reaches over to pat her on her head, an affectionate gesture that she used to do a lot, and as if no time has passed, Seoyeon automatically leans into her touch, while mumbling a vague, almost inaudible answer that Saerom appears to decipher nevertheless. “That's not good—the dream I was talking about though, it was that one with the sunflower field? You remember that one?”

Seoyeon does not remember most of the dreams she had as a teenager, but surprisingly, that one she remembers pretty clearly. She never strictly kept a dream diary, but occasionally, until now, when she has a very clear dream she would sketch whatever she remembers from it. The sunflower dream had been one of the most vivid dreams she had back in the day, and it had resulted in a very brightly colored painting that she'd included in her portfolio that got her in art school abroad.

“I went to a sunflower festival last year,” Saerom shares, “and for some reason, that immediately reminded me of you. Isn't that strange? We hadn't seen each other in years, and you were the first person that came to mind anyway.”

Seoyeon beams; Saerom's casual admittance about having thought of her so easily, just like that, makes warmth bloom from her chest.

There's one detail about that dream that Seoyeon is sure she never shared with the older woman, but is present in the artwork inspired by it: in that painting of the sunflower fields that she created at the very young age of 18, there's a girl with short hair dressed in a blue dress, her arms spread out as she looks up at the sky.

The painting has since been framed, and it now hangs in the hallway of her apartment. Her roommate, Nakyung, is under the impression that it's a self-portrait of sorts—that Seoyeon herself is the girl featured in it. 

She's never told anyone, but the true heroine of that dream?

Was always one Lee Saerom.

  
  
  


Seoyeon wrote in her journal once that the reason why she was so comfortable turning to Saerom about anything, was because any time she was going through something, it always felt like Saerom had already gone through it.

This was also why Saerom had been the first person that Seoyeon came out to.

The CSAT had just passed a week earlier, and for the first time in a while Seoyeon felt like she could relax a little—felt like she could focus her thoughts on things not related to school, or future, without feeling guilty. Saerom was in town for the weekend, and she'd told Seoyeon she would treat her for a meal as a form of celebration.

They had ended up on a picnic instead, on top of a hill that beautifully overlooked spacious cabbage fields that their district was famous for. 

They were sitting side by side, knees touching; In between bites of ham and cheese kimbap she prepared herself, Saerom was happily sharing what Seoyeon could expect once she sets foot in university.

“You'll finally find the time to date because your life doesn't need to revolve around studying 24/7,” she had casually commented, and Seoyeon had been stuck in surprise because Saerom had never really mentioned anything related to her personal romantic endeavors before that.

And then, she interrupted Saerom to tell her something that's been taking over her thoughts slowly, but surely and steadily at the time—perhaps because she had enough brain real estate to consider actual self-reflection for the first time since she hit puberty.

“And what if I want to date girls?”

There had been a moment of silence during which Saerom turned and stared at her with an unreadable expression—at least until a bright smile split across her cheeks, and she burst a fit of sweet sounding giggles.

“Unnie?” Seoyeon pursed her lips, and frown lines formed on her brow due to confusion; something had turned in her stomach, and she felt uncomfortable at the thought that maybe she had been too rash with her inquiry. What if Saerom didn't understand—worse, what if Saerom viewed it as a joke?

“If that's what you want, then you're free to do that,” Saerom told her, and the gentleness in her tone allows Seoyeon to relax. “I—I'm seeing a girl, myself,” she added, her voice was thick with fondness, and a light pink was spread across her pretty cheeks.

And then it's like a dam was let loose as Saerom happily gushed while talking about this girl—Gyuri, that was her name, and Saerom had met her in a communications course that she took a year prior. 

Seoyeon could only gawk in surprise, while another part of her desperately tried to ignore the pangs of jealousy that were pushing at the surface of her emotions.

  
  
  


“I'm sorry for losing touch with you, Syeonnie.”

They'd found themselves at a playground just a block away from the local elementary school. It was fairly new, or, at least it hadn't been around when Seoyeon was a child. Back then, it was still only an empty lot where children played tag, or hide and seek. 

Tonight, she and Saerom had parked themselves on side by side swing seats; the area was empty at night, but Seoyeon can easily imagine it filled with children on normal weekday afternoons.

“There's no need to apologise, unnie,” Seoyeon is quick to answer. “It isn't as if I was trying, either.”

They exchange a look, and then Saerom gives her a small nod, understanding passing between the two of them.

“Are you seeing anyone these days, unnie?” Seoyron finds herself asking.

Saerom laughs at the question, and immediately, Seoyeon can feel her cheeks heating up; she's lucky that the redness on her face won't be easily made out in the darkness of the night. She's not even sure why she was suddenly compelled to ask—she blames it on natural curiosity.

“Not really,” Saerom answers. “Too busy with work.”

“Ah, it's not good to not have time for yourself!”

Saerom laughs. “Are you in a relationship then, Syeonnie?”

Seoyeon ends up ducking her head, embarrassed because she's single herself. “No, work keeps me busy too,” she admits, which only makes Saerom laugh even more.

“The right person will come,” Saerom declares, awfully confident—Seoyeon can't blame her. She figures someone like Saerom wouldn't have a hard time if she was actually searching; she can't imagine anyone not falling for the older woman's charms.

“I liked you a lot when we were younger, unnie,” she admits, spurred on by courage that she didn't know she had. Saerom just smiles, which makes her feel like she has to clarify. “Like as in— _liked_ you a lot. A massive, gay awakening type of crush.”

And maybe that was it; maybe that's why Seoyeon is suddenly brave enough to admit this now that they're both adults. Saerom had been the first girl to make her feel things—to make her question herself, and dig deeper into her own emotions, and even though she's been in a handful of relationships over the last decade, a couple of them being quite serious at that, Saerom will always be _that_ one to her. The one who got away, the one that every other girl she's liked had to secretly measure up to. Saerom was her very first muse, even, the inspiration for most of the artwork that had allowed her to chase after real life dreams, and Seoyeon thinks that maybe she owes herself this much—to let Saerom know the truth, so at least she can let go finally.

“I—” Saerom looks like she doesn't know how to respond, so Seoyeon remains silent to let her process. “I think I kind of knew,” Saerom eventually finishes, much to Seoyeon's surprise.

“You… did?”

Saerom nods slowly. “I didn't _know_ , know—but I think I had a feeling that I ignored because I didn't want to assume anything,” she explains, chuckling as she reaches over to pat Seoyeon on the head.

“I think it was inevitable,” Seoyeon declares as she nuzzles against the older's touch, and Saerom stills, looking at her for an explanation. “Well—how can you not fall for someone who makes you feel like it's perfectly okay to be the real you?” The reason feels so simple to her—a given, yet the awestruck expression Saerom gives her makes her realise that maybe it wasn't really obvious from a different point of view. “That was always how it was with you, unnie—with you, it always felt like I can say or do anything, and it will be fine.”

And then Saerom is laughing, and it's Seoyeon's turn to pause and silently ask with her eyes for an explanation.

“That's how I always felt with you too, Syeonnie,” Saerom tells her. “Sort of—but in the type of way where it always felt like you looked up to me, so I knew I had to do my best in everything because I couldn't let you down—”

“You could've never,” Seoyeon interjects.

“It wasn't a bad thing, though! It was more like—I felt like I could always try my best, because even if I failed, at least I could tell you that I did what I can—which meant I could assure you that no matter what you're going through, it'll turn out okay—” Saerom laughs. “I don't even know if any of what I just said will make sense, but you helped me be the best version of myself, Syeonnie.”

Seoyeon smiles; she thinks she understands what Saerom is saying, because as per usual it's as if the older has been walking the same path as her all along.

  
  
  


Seoyeon is the first to make a move later in the evening, after she offers to walk Saerom back home, to the house where the older woman grew up with her parents.

She doesn't ask—at least not with words. She only peers closely at Saerom, searching her expression for any kind of sign, and when she thinks she's given it, she leans closer.

Her hand moves to rest against Saerom's neck, and she lets out a soft exhale, pausing once again, just for a split second to allow Saerom the option of stopping her right before she finally presses their lips together.

She feels Saerom's mouth curve into a smile against her own, which prompts her to do the same; she relaxes entirely, gaining enough confidence to boldly lead—their lips just lightly brushing against each other before finally parting, as they both deepen the kiss.

It doesn't have to mean anything; Seoyeon is gone in a week, and after three they won't even be in the same country, let alone be operating in the same time zone.

But the kiss is sweet, and certain, and there's something in it—years of curiosity and pining built up and culminating in this simple moment.

“Let's keep in touch this time, Syeonnie,” Saerom tells her after they break away, her eyes bright even under just the dim lighting of street lights.

And Seoyeon grins, nodding in agreement, because just like she always has, Saerom understood what she was trying to convey.

  
  
  
  


_fin._

**Author's Note:**

> I kept putting off choosing a song for this event that all my otherwise choices were taken already. And then I kept putting off choosing a girl group to write for, which in turn meant putting off writing it altogether, so I ended up with this after cramming at the tail end of the event. I can only hope it was an enjoyable read for anyone who made it to here. Thank you for your time, and feedback is always much appreciated ♡


End file.
